Living vs. Non-Living

I'm not too fond of the week in between Thanksgiving and December.  I feel like it is too early to start Winter Holidays and it's too late to introduce anything new in the Autumn realm.  So, this year I decided we would focus on Living vs. Non-Living.  I found an adorable flashcards on Kindergarten...kindergarten... to use as a sorting activity.  I first discussed with the students the difference between living and non-living.  I asked them, "How can we tell if something is alive?"  Wouldn't you know it; they gave me some great answers.  One of the first answers was, "They need air."  YES!  I just knew this was going to be a great lesson and a topic they would be sure to get the hang of!  We finally boiled it down to:  breathes air, eats and drinks, grows/changes, and moves.  We also discussed that somethings don't move but if they did the rest, they were sure to be living!

On a pocket chart we put a "Living" label on one side and a "Non-Living" label on the other side.  I took out the flashcards and we discussed the first few pictures together and decided if they were living or non-living.  Once they seemed to have the hang of it, I handed each student a flashcard of their own.  They each took a turn coming up to the chart, showing their peers their card and then telling us if they thought it was living or non-living.  Here is our chart:

The one picture that really stumped the kiddos was Elmo!  I mean, he moves, talks and eats and drinks on TV, so why wouldn't he be alive?  One of the Kinders told us that Elmo was a puppet and that puppets aren't living things. We had a few minutes left before dismissal time, so, I gave each Kinder a piece of paper folded in half.  I instructed them to draw something that was living on one side and non-living on the other.  They really enjoyed doing that and their pictures were pretty cute!  I didn't get any pictures of them before they took them home.  :(  Bad blogger mistake!

So, if you're looking for some cute Living vs. Non-Living Flashcards head over to Kindergarten...kindergarten... and download them for free!